Focus
June 11, 2004

An election primer

The Big Three weigh in on university education, student loans and research initiatives


by Craig Elliott
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The state of post-secondary education in Canada has yet to draw much attention in our current electoral campaign, having taking a backseat, as is often the case, to bigger-ticket issues such as health care and new deals for cities. But, that isn't to say the country's three major political parties haven't been giving issues such as student loans, university funding and national research and development initiatives a great deal of thought. They have, and the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats have vastly differing ideas about the role universities play in Canada and how best to invest in them.

Here, taken straight from the official party platforms, is what you can expect from each of Canada's major political parties, should they be the one to assume the mantle of power after June 28.

MOVING CANADA FORWARD

In its platform, entitled Moving Canada Forward, the Liberal Party's vision of post-secondary education is one of an as-yet-untapped economic driver. The platform largely points to the education initiatives the Liberals set out in the March budget, such as the Learning Bond. This bond represents a grant of $500 to every child born after 2003, to families earning less than $35,000 per year. They also pledge to contribute an additional 40 per cent of the first $500 of annual contributions to a Registered Education Savings Plan families set aside for children.

The Liberal platform also notes that the party has recently "substantially improved the Canada Student Loans Program, expanding eligible expenses and reducing the parental contribution expected from middle-class families," and "provided students from low-income families with grants worth up to $3,000 toward their first-year tuition."

When it comes to research and development initiatives, citing the billions of dollars already committed to national research and development projects, the Liberals promise action. Paul Martin boasts in a campaign commercial that the Liberals are poised to invest billions of dollars into wind energy, vowing to position Canada as a leader in clean energy technology.

The platform itself promises $1.25 billion in new funding for innovation, with emphasis on "commercialization," or, converting the bright ideas of Canadians into business opportunities for Canada.

As part of this plan, Moving Canada Forward proposes to "support the technology transfer efforts of Canadian universities to ensure that research ideas are more effectively transformed into commercial opportunities," a major thrust at the University of Alberta, and also to "underwrite development by the National Research Council of a network of Commercialization Centers across Canada."

DEMAND BETTER

Under a somewhat less expansive platform headed Demand Better, the Conservative party sees post-secondary education more as a means to an end for the individual, a necessary road a person must take on the road to a high-paying job. The Conservatives promise that a government headed by Stephen Harper will address university funding by "Work(ing) with the provinces to reduce financial barriers to post-secondary education and training."

Acknowledging the increased debt burden that post-secondary students and their families struggle with and wishing to see that "no student who has the desire and ability to learn is denied a post-secondary education due to a lack of financial means," the Conservatives also promise that they will "Work with provinces to improve the Canada Student Loans Program to help overcome the barriers students face in pursuing post-secondary education and training opportunities."

The document offers few specifics, although the proposed improvements could involve increasing maximum loan limits and offering grants to low-income students.

A platform that is nothing if not succinct, Demand Better also promises Conservative investment in research and development, especially in the areas of medicine and science.

NEW ENERGY

Of the three parties' strategies, the New Democrats, with their platform dubbed New Energy. A Positive Choice, have probably the farthest-reaching proposals, with the least concern for what constitutes a student's individual course of study. They promise, first of all, to work with the provinces to establish a Canada Post-Secondary Education Act, toward the ultimate goal of banning private, for-profit universities. Under this banner, aided by a promise of increased federal funding for post-secondary education, they plan to first reduce tuition fees by 10 per cent and then freeze them.

The NDs also propose to phase out the Liberal's Millennium Scholarship Fund, in favour of needs-based grants for low-income students, and to make all interest accrued on the Canada Student Loans Program creditable against graduates' income taxes.

With regard to funding initiatives for research, New Energy. A Positive Choice takes the opposite approach to research to the Liberal position, fearing that funding already plays too large a role in what ought to be the pursuit of knowledge, rather than the pursuit of profit. The New Democrats express concerns that research at our universities has become too commercialized, and promise "increased funding for research to halt the privatization of research on campus and allowing science to be examined on its own merits."